Its A Wrap – Happy New Year!

While I may have my tree down and the ornaments put away, I am still reeling from the very full and festive past few weeks. I promise that, after this, there will be no more pictures of Santa or Christmas trees — it will be all 2009 from here on out.  But, to wrap it up, as they say, and to document these past two weeks, both for your sake and mine (this is as close to scrapbooking as I get), here we go:

Two weeks ago, my baby Zip turned three!  Hard to believe, but welcomed.  I warned him the night before that he only had a few more hours to use up the word "NO," because, really, who wants to be in their terrible two's forever?  I think I've heard the word a few times since, but, honestly, he seems to have taken it to heart, because as of late, he's been a real delight.

He woke up on the 18th and said, "it's my birthday!  I want chocolate ice cream!"

How could I say No?

For months, he's been asking for a guitar.  I found this sweet little ukelelie, and now it's his.

His other birthday request?  Slippers:

Sporting nothing but a diaper, his slippers, and his red guitar, he fully embodies the fiery Sagitarius that he is.  There has been much rockin' around the Christmas tree.

We try and go easy on the toys during the holidays, both to be financially conservative, but also to teach the boys that it's not about the "stuff."  We are fortunate enough to live in an area where there is no lack of things to do, so we try to take advantage of the many festivities, figuring the experiences will stick with them and be more memorable than a piece of cheap plastic.

To celebrate Zip's special day, my mom and I took the boys up to The Tilden Park Merry-Go-Round.  It holds special significance for us both, because she used to take me there when I was a child.  During the holidays, they deck the lawn in lights, bring in a couple dozen trees which they drip with ornaments, and are open all week from 5 until 8:30 p.m.  For a couple of dollars, a child's Christmas fantasy is fulfilled.

The next night, hooked on the season, we took them to the Oakland Children's Fairyland, which was also being kept open late for the holidays.

We drank hot cocoa, got to experience this special park at night, Zip got many birthday hugs by giant stuffed animals, and Tizzy was thrilled to no end by this very funny clown:

Brad rented A Christmas Story for us all to watch on Christmas Eve. The boys are now among its biggest fans. All week long, they've been reciting lines and telling us about Ralphie and his sister.  (We keep explaining that Randy was his brother, but it doesn't seem to matter.)

"Mama, I'm going to tell you about a movie." Tizzy will say. "Ralphie's sister did not like to eat, but then, he rolled his face in a bowl of yogurt! [actually, mashed potatoes.[Isn't that funny?!"

"Ralphie's father said 'Fragi-way' and his mother said, 'It's not Italian. I think it says fragile.' Ah-Ha-Ha-Ha!"

"Ralphie want's a shooting stick, but Santa said 'You'll shoot your eye out!" Zip shouts.

And so it goes.  After the movie, and showing the boys where Santa was on the Norad tracker, we managed to get them to fall asleep on our bed.  They'd left cookies and a cup full of bubble water by the Christmas tree, and Tizzy woke up to find this in their place:

"ZIP! ZIP! GET UP, ZIP!" He screamed. Shaking him and crying, "SANTA CAME, ZIP! YOU HAVE TO GET UP! OH, PLEASE, OH, PLEASE! WAKE UP, ZIP!" 

A bleary eyed Zip toddled out to the living room and, realizing what had happened, promptly woke up.  Santa brought them watches, which Tizzy had most wanted, and which he has been wearing proudly ever since, books, a few small toys and lots of candy.  Oh, the candy!

After getting ourselves dressed and out the door, we drove down to visit my mom and family in Santa Cruz, and celebrated Christmas in tandem with our cousin Truman's fourth birthday.  My mom put together a beautiful Christmas dinner, the boys watched A Christmas Story one more time, and then we loaded them up in the car and drove home.

The next day, having the long weekend to look forward to, Brad and I piled the boys in the car and headed up for what we thought would be a day playing in the snow.  Not being skiers, we didn't know that the day after Christmas is the biggest day of the year up in Tahoe.  We got to the base of the mountain, and then hit the traffic on the 50.  By that point, we were halfway there, and we decided to continue on our trek.  By the time we got over the mountain, it was almost dark. There was nothing to do but spend the night.  We managed to get one of the last rooms at the Motel 6, hunkered down for the night, and, in the mornin,g set out to enjoy the 48 inches of freshly fallen snow.  Those of you in snow country know that that's a lot of snow.  I'll stop romanticising it.  I don't know how you dig your way out all winter.  That much snow is actually scary — beautiful, but terrifying.  By the time we ate breakfast the boys were planning their mutiny.  They still hadn't had a chance to disappear into the powder.

With our sleds in tow, we found them a snow park on on Echo Summit.  I took Zip, and Brad took Tizzy, and we made our way up the mountain.  

With Zip's screams echoing through the canyon, many a head was turned to me as we made out way up the mountain.  I, the awful mother who made her child slide down the giant hill.  What they didn't know was that those weren't screams of terror, but, rather, screams of rage, because I wouldn't let him slide down head first on his belly, by himself.

Brad took him to the baby hill next and offered to let him do just that. Once on his belly he changed his mind, and I was forgiven. 

Tizzy enjoyed the sled but, as usual, was much more intent on wandering off into the woods.  While Brad took Zip down the hill a few more times, Tizzy bound across the crust above the freshly fallen snow, while I sank in hip-deep.  Eventually, I resorted to futile crawling as I tried in vain to keep up with him.

After just a few times down the hill, Zip was returned to me, and Brad tried to find a bathroom he could stomach or an accessible tree, which turned out to be much more of an ordeal than he'd thought.  By the time he returned, 1/2 an hour later after almost disappearing forever down a snow-covered foxhole, the boys were spent.  The combination of the anticipation and the altitude had done them in.  It was fun, but exhausting.  We hope to do it again later this winter, but, preferably just in a day, and maybe with a little less snow.

The boys entertained us with their own rendition of A Christmas Story all the way home.

Tizzy singing, "Jing a horse and pull his tail, Fa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa," and Zip chiming in: "Not Fa-wa-wa – like this – Fa-fa-fa! Try again."

On New Years Eve, we threw together a very last-minute, kid-friendly New Year's Eve party with a handful of our oldest friends.  The kids ran around like crazy, while we adults lay around on the floor for the first time in weeks.  Only the youngest and the oldest two children made it until midnight, which we rang in around the computer synchronized with a previously recorded countdown from Times Square.  The youngest child managed to stay awake by eating chocolate cake until the bitter end, and the oldest by staying glued to his watch.  As the seconds ticked past midnight, his father exclaimed, "I think he's just learned the definition of 'anti-climactic.'"  He promptly fell asleep in the car.

A very Happy New Year to you all! 

May you have your health, and be surrounded by loved ones in 2009.